QUICK NEWS, 8-17: DOG BOILED ALIVE; FIRE AND FLOOD, 1; FIRE AND FLOOD, 2; WIND CAN PAY FOR GOOD SITES

DOG BOILED ALIVE
Dog boiled alive after jumping into mint farm discharge
Gitte Laasby, August 14, 2010 (Gary Post-Tribune)

"A yellow labrador was boiled alive after jumping into a ditch with scalding-hot water from an illegal water discharge…The dog's owner sustained third-degree burns on his lower leg when he tried to save the dog. The mint farm responsible faces fines, but continued its deadly discharge…with the knowledge of state environmental officials.

"An anonymous staff member at the Indiana Department of Environmental Management [IDEM] said the handling of the case is the latest example of the continuous dismantling of Indiana's environmental enforcement, which has included rewriting enforcement guidance and canceling contracts for local air pollution monitoring…[Six days after the incident] South Bend TV station WSBT measured temperatures of water downstream from the mint farm as high as 190 degrees Fahrenheit. State law says permitted discharges can be no higher than five degrees above the [currently 90 degree] air temperature…The discharge caused steam to rise from the ditch."

The inside word is that when Congress comes back in September, there will be a major effort by conservatives to strip the EPA of its ability to enforce laws against the harm done by greenhouse gas emissions. This gut wrenching story shows what can happen when enforcement powers are taken away from the EPA. (click to enlarge)

"The injuries happened when Walkerton resident Pete Daley played fetch with his yellow labrador, George, last weekend. The dog jumped into a drainage ditch near County Road 850E…and came out screaming. Daley got third-degree burns on his lower leg from trying to save the dog. He told media that when he pulled the dog's leg, it's hide came off. He watched the dog die 15 seconds later.

"An anonymous IDEM source told the Post-Tribune that the hot discharge poses a clear threat to human health and the environment and should be considered an emergency…IDEM generally sends in emergency responders when an unpermitted discharge causes harm and can suggest immediate solutions, such as diluting the discharge so it doesn't pose a threat…This case was handled by IDEM's compliance and enforcement sections, which could take months to resolve the matter, the source said…"

Yellow lab: "...when he pulled the dog's leg, it's hide came off. He watched the dog die 15 seconds later." It might be worth asking people who ask for votes this fall if they will protect the EPA and loved ones. (click to enlarge)

"The anonymous source said IDEM managers told the inspector not to stop the farm's discharge because it's the middle of harvest season, which runs through September or October…A man answering the phone at Materna Mint, who wouldn't give his name, said the company has discharged water for the past 25 years…installed a new discharge pipe this summer [but still discharges into the ditch]…"

[Anonymous IDEM source:] "At some point, they upgraded all their boilers and all their processing system for higher temperatures so they could process more, quicker. What they're negligent on, they didn't consider how that would change their discharge. Now it's much hotter because of the hotter temperatures…"


FIRE AND FLOOD, 1
Russia Fires, Pakistan Floods Linked? Extreme weather driven partly by global warming, experts say.
Christine Dell’Amore, August 11, 2010 (National Geographic)

"They're raging a continent apart, but two deadly natural disasters—the Russian wildfires and the Pakistan floods—may be connected by the Asian monsoon, one of the most powerful atmospheric forces on the planet, scientists say…[T]he monsoon—a seasonal wind system that brings rain and floods to Pakistan and much of the rest of Asia in summer—also drives the circulation of air as far away as Europe…

"Air pumped into the upper atmosphere by monsoon winds has to come down somewhere. And with the monsoon's giant reach, much of that air seems to be settling over Russia, where it's creating high-pressure conditions, which favor heat waves…Near high-pressure systems, air tends to sink, which discourages clouds from forming."

hot Russian girl (click to enlarge)

"Such circulation patterns are normal, but they're also being enhanced by rising sea temperatures due in part to global warming…[T]he northern Indian Ocean has warmed 2 degrees Fahrenheit (1.1 degrees Celsius) since the 1970s. Warmer water releases more moisture into the air, which can supercharge monsoon rains…[I]t's not just natural variability and not just global warming…but a combination of both…[T]he last months of a recent El Niño—a cyclical warming of tropical waters in the central and eastern Pacific Ocean—likely contributed to the high sea temperatures in the Indian Ocean…

"…[T]he monsoon link between the Russia fires and Pakistan floods is difficult to prove, since it's based on observations and interpretations of past research…This year's fierce monsoon rains have spawned Pakistan's worst flooding in 80 years, affecting nearly 14 million people…And in Russia, widespread fires are stoked by the worst heat wave in Russian memory…[with] temperatures have hovered around 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 degrees Celsius) for weeks and show no sign of letting up soon…"

the good news is the drought is over (click to enlarge)

"Trapping the [wildfire] smoke are anticyclones, atmospheric high-pressure centers that occur when monsoon winds form a stable layer of air a few thousand feet above Earth's surface…Both Russia and Pakistan are also experiencing "remarkable" temperatures in 2010, which is shaping up to be one of the hottest years since record-keeping began in the late 1880s…Nine countries have shattered heat records… [Pakistan reached] 128.3 degrees Fahrenheit (53.5 degrees Celsius)—the highest ever seen in Asia…

"Extreme events…are believed by some scientists to be increasing with global warming, and the disasters in Russia and Pakistan may be indications of this…[and] prolonged by an atmospheric "logjam" that's common in the summer but which has been unusually "stubborn and long-lasting" this year…[It] occurs when atmospheric winds lock climate phenomena—such as large storms or heat waves—into place for a long period of time…Overall, scientists often struggle to quantify how the climate fits in with such natural occurrences…"


FIRE AND FLOOD, 2
Long, hot summer of fire, floods fits predictions
Charles J. Hanley (w/Michael J. Crumb and Christopher Bodeen), August 13, 2010 (AP via Washington Post)

"…From smoke-choked Moscow to water-soaked Iowa and the High Arctic, the planet seems to be having a midsummer breakdown. It's not just a portent of things to come, scientists say, but a sign of troubling climate change already under way.

"The weather-related cataclysms of July and August fit patterns predicted by climate scientists, the Geneva-based World Meteorological Organization says - although those scientists always shy from tying individual disasters directly to global warming."

Heat bent these steel railroad tracks last summer in Australia. This year is hotter. (click to enlarge)

"The experts now see an urgent need for better ways to forecast extreme events like Russia's heat wave and wildfires and the record deluge devastating Pakistan…The U.N.'s network of climate scientists - the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) - has long predicted that rising global temperatures would produce more frequent and intense heat waves, and more intense rainfalls…Still, climatologists generally refrain from blaming warming for this drought or that flood, since so many other factors also affect the day's weather.

"The WMO pointed out that this summer's events fit the international scientists' projections of 'more frequent and more intense extreme weather events due to global warming.' …The melting of land ice into the oceans is causing about 60 percent of the accelerating rise in sea levels worldwide, with thermal expansion from warming waters causing the rest. The WMO'S World Climate Research Program says seas are rising by 1.34 inches (34 millimeters) per decade, about twice the 20th century's average."

click to enlarge

"Worldwide temperature readings, meanwhile, show that this January-June was the hottest first half of a year since recordkeeping began in the mid-19th century. Meteorologists say 17 nations have recorded all-time-high temperatures in 2010, more than in any other year.

"Scientists blame the warming on carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases pouring into the atmosphere from power plants, cars and trucks, furnaces and other fossil fuel-burning industrial and residential sources…Experts are growing ever more vocal in urging sharp cutbacks in emissions, to protect the climate that has nurtured modern civilization."


WIND CAN PAY FOR GOOD SITES
Panel calls for giving property owners a stake in wind farms
Thomas Content, August 15, 2010 (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)

"A task force is recommending that wind farm developers in Wisconsin offer to make payments to homeowners who live near the projects…[This] is among the proposals forwarded to the state Public Service Commission by a wind turbine site advisory council that has been meeting since March.

"The PSC is expected to consider the proposals by the end of August and forward them to the Legislature for review…The goal is to strike a balance between adding wind power and protecting nearby homeowners who are concerned about shadow flicker and noise from towers that can rise hundreds of feet in the air."

Growth is big and Wisconsin is wise to prepare. (click to enlarge)

"The wind siting council task force…included wind developers and utilities as well as homeowners and town officials…[It] was created by a state law aimed at creating uniform wind power siting standards to replace a hodgepodge of local regulations that have cropped up around the state, including outright bans adopted in some areas. The rules target small wind farms that are issued permits by local governments. Utility-scale wind farms must be approved by the PSC…

"To reduce the tension between property owners who host wind turbines and those who don't, the council is advocating that nearby property owners be given a financial stake in a project by the developer…though a majority of the council concluded that wind farms do not reduce property values for nearby landowners…"

Like Wisconsin, many states want more small wind and have incentives to drive growth. (click to enlarge)

"Most of the council's recommendations are supported by an 11-4 majority…[The minority] said the council's makeup was skewed toward groups or businesses with a financial stake in wind power projects…[and that] the recommendations are not restrictive enough…

"The proposal to offer nearby property owners a financial stake in exchange for an easement is similar to what We Energies has in place for Glacier Hills, which will be Wisconsin's largest wind project to date…Wisconsin needs six more wind farms the size of the 90-turbine Glacier Hills project to achieve the state's renewable energy mandate that 10% of the state's electricity come from renewable sources by 2015."